Vodafone dumps DRM
VODAFONE IS THE LATEST in a growing list of music providers to realise that placing draconian digital limitations on downloaded music just doesn't work.
Following in the path trod by Apple and Amazon, the UK mobile phone giant says that its entire roster of nearly a million tunes will be unfettered by copy protection by the summer.
It also promised that current users would be able to swap their hobbled versions of songs for the new rights-free MP3 format free of charge.
The company has signed deals with Universal, Sony and EMI, and is hoping to have Warners in the bag by the time the upgraded service rolls out.
Songs will cost a rather hefty pound a pop, with albums weighing in at £6, but Vodafone says that bulk discounts will be offered for those buying 15 or more choons at a time.
Roll-out will initially be in the UK, Spain and New Zealand with other countries to follow. µ
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Now that companies have realised that DRM sucks, the next step would be for them to realise that MP3 sucks too. I'd even pay more to have FLAC offered alongside MP3 & OGG.
Now after 7 years of downloading 'illegal' music I can finally consider paying for it and now f**king my media library. Just need to get a decent HD video d/l service and media centre and we're all done... come on guys! We'd pay through the nose if this stuff worked ;)
Hopefully we can see the same DRM free PC games. The burial of SecuROM would be great. And maybe Bluray would sell better if DRM was removed. I'm avoiding ALL Sony products because of this.
Well I'm please to know I'm not the only one boycotting Sony shi!t. I'm also boycotting products that they supply components for where possible or for there subsidiary companies like Awia.
I have a Sony minidisk and I have loads of personal recording on 100's of disks, These are able to be copied to another digital device owing to DRM, yet the hardware could if Sony released the encryption keys on the AAC+? used.
Well done Vodafone, as a vodafone customer I might move from making calles only to buying music too.